2 Pro-life bills get Kansas Senate committee hearings

The Kansas legislature reconvened for the second half of the session and Kansans for Life testified in hearings for two pro-life bills.

On Thursday, the Senate Public Health & Welfare committee held a hearing on SB 437, Simon’s Law, a bill to insure that the issuance of any Do Not Resuscitate order (DNR) for a minor has parental consent.

Since baby Simon’s death five years ago due to unjustifiable denial of care, Sheryl Crosier, his mother, has been in touch with a myriad of other families whose

medically fragile children were harmed and/or denied medical resuscitation– due tonegative “quality of life” value judgments from physicians and hospitals.

Simon’s Law, SB 437, was introduced by Sen. Jacob LaTurner (R-Pittsburg), who thanked Crosier for her commitment to the issue and her bravery in describing for the committee the events involved in her son’s death.

Sen. Jacob LaTurner

Her testimony was indeed both shocking and gut-wrenching for those in the packed committee room: Sheryl and her husband discovered–after Simon’s demise– that life-sustaining care had been denied to him due to a secretly-placed DNR based on his status as an infant with Trisomy 18. (See details here and read more in her book: I am Not a Syndrome, My name is Simon.)

Crosier’s experience triggered the production of a 2014 film called “Labeled,” on the topic of the medical discrimination against children with Trisomy 18, Trisomy 13 and related chromosomal disorders. (See info on these conditions here.)

Kansans for Life is promotingSimon’s Law, on behalf of these families– as well as physicians and researchers– who want parents assured of “an environment that allows medical decisions to be made in anethical and transparent way.” (Read KFL testimony here, and numerous heart-breaking actual accounts submitted to the committee here.)

The committee will likely work on the bill next week. Contact info is here for Senate Health committee members, so you can urge them to pass Simon’s Law, SB 437.

U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp

BILL THAT PLANNED PARENTHOOD HATES
On Wednesday, March 2, the Senate Ways & Means Committee heard testimony from Kansans for Life supporting SB 436. This measure would make permanent the way the state health department, KDHE, assigns grants using Title X federal funding.

First passed in 2007 as the Huelskamp-Kinzer amendment, SB 436 prioritizes that full-service public clinics and hospitals are first in line for Title X ‘reproductive-services’ money. Remaining money is secondarily prioritized to private, full-service clinics and hospitals.

The emphasis is on providing comprehensive health care for Kansans who qualify for Title X, and for strengthening ‘safety net’ health clinics.

The legislature annually passed the Huelskamp-Kinzer amendment only to have it vetoed by pro-abortion governors, until pro-life Gov. Sam Brownback took office in 2011. It has been approved in the budget every year since.

Planned Parenthood of Kansas Mid-Missouri (PPKMM) sued the Title X prioritization because they cannot provide the comprehensive care now required. During litigation, however, PPKMM continued to receive over a million dollars when Kansas was forced by an activist court to continue contracting with them.

The Kansas Attorney Generals’ office strongly defended the measure in federal district court, and on appeal. Dr. Robert Moser, then-KDHE Secretary who was named in the lawsuit, justified the state’s position, stating,

“Title X was not intended to be an entitlement program for Planned Parenthood.”

Sen. Caryn Tyson

The Title X prioritization of the Huelskamp-Kinzer amendment was finally upheld in a ruling from the federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2014. After PPKMM’s loss, they dropped further appeals. Read more here.

With 26 Senate co-sponsors, Sen. Caryn Tyson (R-Parker) introduced SB 436, in which the Title X budget prioritization is put permanently into statute.

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[…] Kansans for Life had presented a collection of tragic accounts of how medically-fragile children were harmed –or had died!– due to “secret” DNRs. See personal testimonies and blog posts, here and here. […]